Macquarie funds buy Global Tower in $1.4 bln deal

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global Tower Partners, a U.S. wireless tower operator, is to be bought by a consortium of infrastructure funds managed by members of Australia's Macquarie Group in a deal valued at $1.4 billion.

New York-based fund Macquarie Infrastructure Partners and Sydney-based Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group bought the Boca Raton, Florida, based provider of outsourced antennae site facilities from buyout group Blackstone (BX.N).

The consortium said in a press statement that the deal gave Global Tower an enterprise value of $1.4 billion.

Global Tower has 2,500 towers and more than 4,600 rooftop sites for wireless communications services. Its customers include Sprint-Nextel Corp. (S.N), AT&T (T.N) and Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications (VZ.N) and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L).

Macquarie Group includes Australian investment bank Macquarie Bank MBL.AX.